Saturday, March 10, 2012

Know thyself, you are like a boat

Many of the spiritual doctors,
most notably St. Teresa of Avila, emphasize that spiritual growth must begin
with knowledge of self.

However, this “self-knowledge”
is not quite what we think of today. When the spiritual doctors tell us to “know
thyself”, they are not principally meaning that we must learn our personal
strengths and weaknesses (though, of course, it is very important to recognize
our principal vice), but they are rather directing us toward knowledge of the
human condition. “Self-knowledge” refers, first and foremost, to an
understanding of the human soul, the faculties, the virtues (and vices), the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, etc.

It seems to us that most errors
which priests make in giving spiritual direction stem from a lack of
understanding of the human person. Indeed, the Doctor of Prayer (i.e. Avila)
says that most errors early on in the spiritual life come from a lack of
self-knowledge.

Preparation
for the Total Consecration: Week 1, Knowledge of self and sorrow for sin

As we near the end of the “first
week” of the thirty day preparation for the Total Consecration to Jesus through
Mary (i.e. days thirteen through nineteen, from March 5th through
March 11th), we take a moment to consider the theme of this first
week: Knowledge of self and sorrow for sin.

St. Louis-Marie’s primary focus
on this week is humility. He directs us to recognize our lowliness, to think of
ourselves as worms, to see that we depend entirely on God. We strive to recognize
how wretched we are and how needful of grace, only then can we appreciate the
great gift of redemption through Jesus which is transmitted to us also through
Mary.

De Montfort is not particularly
concerned with “self-knowledge” in the sense in which we will discuss it in
this article, that is, knowledge of the human condition and of the workings of
the human soul. However, to understand virtue and vice (as well as the
intellect, will, imagination, etc.) will be a great boon to recognizing how
great is the human soul as God made it, and how wretched we have made our souls
through sin.

Further, we will have at least
the beginnings of an understanding of how to grow in the spiritual life.

You
are like a boat

So, what exactly are virtues
and vices? What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? How do they interact? What is
sanctifying grace? Etc.

In order to understand these
realities, which are the core of the spiritual life (since the path to holiness
can be summed up in this: Growth in the virtues, especially in charity), we
will use the analogy of a boat.

The
boat is your soul, on the way to happiness in heaven

First, the boat is your soul.
As the boat is upon the waters, which are sometimes turbulent and other times
calm, so too your soul is in the world and is sometimes assailed and other
times left at ease.

The boat is going to a far off
port, so too your soul is called to attain to heaven. Just as the boat has a
destination, your soul is directed toward happiness.

But, of course, the boat needs
some means of attaining this goal (the distant port), some way of crossing the
waters. So too your soul needs to be propelled forward to happiness, to heaven.

The
oars are cardinal virtues

In order to move forward and
reach the port, the boat has oars by which it is propelled. The oars are part
of the boat and are powered by people within the boat. Hence, they are in the
boat and under the control of the men of the boat.

Your soul has something like
oars, these are the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.
By these virtues (especially by acts of these virtues), you are propelled
forward towards happiness in heaven. Like the oars, the virtues are in you and
are under your control – you are able to make an act of these virtues as you
will.

Even when we think of the
infused virtues (which are different in kind from the acquired virtues of the
same name: such that infused prudence is a virtue really distinct from acquired
prudence), these are put in you by God but are yet under your control. Hence,
even though you do not acquire infused justice through your own effort, but
have it directly infused into your soul (for example, at baptism), nevertheless
the virtue once infused is under your control. You are able (at your will) to
make an act of the infused virtue of justice – rendering unto God true worship,
for example.

All the virtues (excepting the
theological virtues) are symbolized by the oars.

The
rudder is the theological virtues

However, in order to reach its
port, the boat needs something more than forward propulsion, it also requires
direction. So that the oars drive the boat on the proper route, a rudder is
needed. This rudder orients the boat to the desired goal.

Your soul also needs to be
correctly oriented. The virtues (and acts of the virtues in particular) drive
you forward, but in order that you may attain supernatural happiness, you
require a supernatural “rudder”.

Thus it is that God, by grace (and
generally through baptism), infused into your soul the three theological
virtues of faith, hope and love. By these theological virtues, your soul is
given a new supernatural orientation – you now are directed not to a merely
natural happiness, but to a supernatural happiness (i.e. heaven).

Like the oars, the rudder is
under the control of the men in the ship. So too, once they are infused, the
theological virtues are under your control. At your own choosing, you are able
to make an act of faith, of hope, or of love. Once the virtue is in you (by the
grace of God), it is within your power (being moved interiorly by grace) to
exercise the virtue.

The
sails, the gifts of the Holy Spirit

But the oars, as good as they
are, move the boat forward only slowly. Thus, it is most fitting that the boat have
sails by which it is propelled forward much more quickly by the wind.

Consider the sails of a boat:
They are truly in the boat and part of the boat, but they do not move the boat
forward by any power within the boat. Rather, it is the external force of the
wind (which is wholly outside the control of the men on the boat) which fills
the sails and gives the boat forward motion.

Your soul also has sails: The
seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel,
piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord). These gifts are somewhat like the
virtues, insofar as they really are stable “things” in your soul. However, they
are diverse from the virtues insofar as they are not really under your control.

This is the great difference
between the gifts and the virtues: While you can make an “act of faith” at your
willing it, you cannot make an “act of the gift of wisdom” at your will.
Rather, it is only by the special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as from an
outside force (rather than in the form of an interior movement of grace), that
the soul is able to make acts from the gifts.

The gifts are really in you,
they are truly part of your soul. And, when the Holy Spirit moves you through
one of the gifts, he is moving you by something within you. However, like the
sails of a ship, the moving force is exterior to your soul.

The
boat and your spiritual life

Just as the sails are the glory
of a ship, so too the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the glory of your soul. The
perfection of the spiritual life consists in living more and more from the
gifts of the Holy Spirit. In order for the gifts to be operative, it is necessary
that the soul be wholly docile to the (usually) gentle inspirations of the Holy
Spirit.

That being said, the most
important part of the ship (in terms of reaching the port) is not really the
sails, but the rudder. So too in the spiritual life, the most important
realities are the theological virtues. While the gift of wisdom may be the
crown and glory of the interior life, the theological virtue of charity is its
heart.

What
about the “dark night”?

In the center of the boat,
there is generally a room for the most precious cargo. This center is hid away,
deep within. Those men working the sails and oars and rudder know nothing of
this center.

So too, the soul has a center.
Here, deeper than the imagination, even deeper than the faculties of the
intellect and the will, in the very essence of the soul – this is the place
where sanctifying grace resides. Here, in the heart of the soul, is the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit (and of the whole Trinity).

This is why, sometimes, we can
be united to God even when we do not feel united. This is why there is
sometimes a “dark night” (two, in fact). We are at the oars or the rudder or
even the sails, but God is much deeper.

The imagination is so far from
the center of the soul, it can know nothing of what takes place therein. Even
the intellect and the will, being only faculties of the soul and not the
essence of the soul itself, do not clearly perceive who dwells within.

But God will draw us deeper, through
darkness, to an un-knowing transcending
all knowledge. Then the oars will be stilled, and even the rudder, the faculties
all suspended and our house being now at rest, we will go forth into the night
(the light of which is brighter than the sun, but beyond our perceiving) – and there,
deep within, we shall find our Beloved.

@hansursvanme,Good eye!Yes, fortitude is both a cardinal virtue and a gift of the Holy Spirit.Rather, there is both a virtue and a gift called "fortitude".However, just as infused fortitude and acquired fortitude are essentially two different virtues, so too the virtue of fortitude and the gift of fortitude are essentially different realities.

So, there are three "things" in the soul which is in the state of grace called "fortitude": An acquired virtue, an infused virtue, and a gift of the Holy Spirit.

[they share the same name by way of a certain analogy ... all of them relate to being strong in the face of external trials]

Thank you for your thoughtful writing. I need to read this piece more than once (or twice).

Can you please recommend additional reading for a good, orthodox explanation of the soul? You seem to reference a model of the soul in this piece that I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with (e.g., "the soul has a center ... deeper than the imagination ... the intellect and the will"). I've previous read the entry in Catholic Encyclopedia on New Advent and found it difficult to understand. I'd appreciate any recommendations you have.

Two quick side notes:1) Dr. Liles at Beginning to Pray has a similar train of thought with the ships/sailing analogy in the end of his current Heaven in Faith piece - "Freed from their prison, they sail on the Ocean of Divinity without any creature being an obstacle or hindrance to them."2) I loved your comment on Mark Shea's piece on St. Louis de Montfort.

Great post Father,Your explanation of the soul and its relation to God was excellent. I think this is why St. Augustine became one of the greatest Fathers of the Church, because he prayed earnestly and constantly to know nothing but God and the soul (see Soliloquies and Confessions).

Father, it would be very helpful if you could then explain the relationship of these things to the Fruits and to the Beatitudes.

As I understand it, Aquinas seems to indicate that the Fruits and Beatitudes are sort of like the "acts" preformed by fully formed virtues and gifts (which are habits), but I'm still not entirely clear, as the Beatitudes seem described as dispositions too, albeit dispositions of acting.

@A Sinner,You are correct, the fruits and beatitudes are acts (not dispositions or habits) which proceed from the virtues and gifts.

As to why the names (in some cases) seem to refer to dispositions rather than actions ... St. Thomas explains:"Sometimes the names of the virtues are applied to their actions: thus Augustine writes (Tract. xl in Joan.): "Faith is to believe what thou seest not"; and (De Doctr. Christ. iii, 10): "Charity is the movement of the soul in loving God and our neighbor." It is thus that the names of the virtues are used in reckoning the fruits." (ST I-II, q.70, a.1, ad 3)

For the Beatitudes, though, it almost seems like those describe not just acts, but patterns of acts. Not in the sense of the habit which produces the act, but in the sense of a character of many acts. There is a difference between one pull of the oars or gust of wind in the sails...and sailing along smoothly and constantly, I assume.

For example, "meekness" doesn't just sound like one act of meekness, it sounds like a description of a person who consistently makes such acts. Same thing with being "pure of heart" or "hungering and thirsting after righteousness"...these sound like stable characteristics describing a pattern of acts, not just as single act (single acts seem to be, in themselves, described as Fruits).

So, realizing the deep interior and precious cargo, God, involves a suspension or, better, a letting go in our identification with the faculties of the soul and allowing or assenting to being dropped into a void which which we are incapable of seeing: the Dark Night? And we do this as an act of faith, faith which we do not naturally possess, but which the Holy Spirit gives us so that we can agree to what would otherwise seem to be our annihilation?